The twilight of the Liberal Social Contract? On the Reception of Rawlsian Political Liberalism

This chapter discusses the Rawlsian project of public reason, or public justification-based 'political' liberalism, and its reception. After a brief philosophical rather than philological reconstruction of the project, the chapter revolves around a distinction between idealist and realist responses to it. Focusing on political liberalism’s critical reception illuminates an overarching question: was Rawls’s revival of a contractualist approach to liberal legitimacy a fruitful move for liberalism and/or the social contract tradition? The last section contains a largely negative answer to that question. Nonetheless the chapter's conclusion shows that the research programme of political liberalism provided and continues to provide illuminating insights into the limitations of liberal contractualism, especially under conditions of persistent and radical diversity. The programme is, however, less receptive to challenges to do with the relative decline of the power of modern states

Development and validation of Croatian school climate survey for students

Školska klima je važan čimbenik djetetova kognitivnog, socijalnog i emocionalnog razvoja. Zbog brojnih kulturalnih specifičnosti i specifičnosti školskog sustava za mjerenje školske klime neopravdano je koristiti instrumente razvijene u inozemstvu bez prilagodbe, te je cilj ovog istraživanja bio adaptirati i validirati upitnik koji će mjeriti školsku klimu iz učeničke perspektive te biti primjeren za korištenje u hrvatskim školama. Kao polazište uzet je American School Climate Survey Version 2.0. (Perkins, 2006). Razvoj i validacija Hrvatskog upitnika školske klime za učenike (HUŠK-U) provedeni su na tri različita uzorka učenika osnovnih škola. Prvi uzorak, na kojem je testirana prva verzija HUŠK-U-a, sastojao se od 320 učenika petog do osmog razreda iz dviju osnovnih škola iz dva grada s područja Slavonije. Na drugom je uzorku, koji se sastojao od 880 učenika petog do osmog razreda iz šest gradskih škola Osijeka, provedena validacija HUŠK-U-a. Uzorak od 293 učenika od petog do osmog razreda iz dvije škole s područja Baranje poslužio je za validaciju na seoskim školama. Provjera konstruktne valjanosti potvrdila je pretpostavljenu jednofaktorsku strukturu na sva tri uzorka. Također je utvrđena zadovoljavajuća osjetljivost i visoka unutarnja konzistencija upitnika (α = 0, 88-0, 92). U prilog valjanosti HUŠK-a govore i statistički značajne korelacije s vanjskim mjerama: školskim uspjehom, samoprocjenom osjećaja sigurnosti u školskom okruženju, te samoprocjenama počinjenja vršnjačkog nasilja i viktimizacije od strane vršnjaka. Zaključno, rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da je HUŠK-U valjan i pouzdan instrument koji se može koristiti na različitim uzorcima djece viših razreda osnovne škole i u različitim područjima istraživanja koja se bave konstruktom školske klime ili imaju potrebu za operacionalizacijom toga konstrukta

Landisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels are an illuminated manuscript, written between 680 and 720 by a monk working on the island of Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, which is off the northern coast of England.1 An illuminated manuscript is a codex, or book, that is written by hand and is richly decorated with intricate designs and pictures and was the typical way that documents were copied. Until the invention of the printing press, manuscripts were the only way that books and records were documented and distributed. The complex and beautiful designs were often complimented by a jeweled or expensive cover to the book, such as gold lined or silver bound books. These were achievements that the scribes were extremely proud of when they finished and took many years to finish, varying depending on the length of the book

Kant’s (Non-Question-Begging) Refutation of Cartesian Scepticism

Interpreters of Kant’s Refutation of Idealism face a dilemma: it seems to either beg the question against the Cartesian sceptic or else offer a disappointingly Berkeleyan conclusion. In this article I offer an interpretation of the Refutation on which it does not beg the question against the Cartesian sceptic. After defending a principle about question-begging, I identify four premises concerning our representations that there are textual reasons to think Kant might be implicitly assuming. Using those assumptions, I offer a reconstruction of Kant’s Refutation that avoids the interpretative dilemma, though difficult questions about the argument remain

The evolution of evaluation – the accelerating march towards the measurement of public relations effectiveness

The measurement and evaluation of public relations effectiveness has long been a major professional and research issue (White and Blamphin 1994; Synnott and McKie 1997). Recently Watson (2008) found that it still ranked third in an international study of public relations research priorities. In the first half of the last century, there was little reference to it. The first major scholarly reference came in Cutlip and Center’s first edition of Effective Public Relations (1952) which implies there was some prior discussion but there is little evidence. It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that the first US conference and professional publications on the topic were evidenced. The first scholarly journal special issue devoted to it, ‘Measuring the Effectiveness of Public Relations’ was published as the Winter 1977 edition of Public Relations Review. There was a burgeoning of academic and professional discussion from the mid-1980s onwards. Also the major consultancy groups started to introduce proprietary media measurement systems (e.g. Hill and Knowlton, 1979; Ketchum, 1982; CARMA, 1984). By the end of the decade there was a growing body of knowledge from academic and professional sources which led into a wide, international expansion of publications and services in the 1990s. Professional bodies in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United States, as well as the International Public Relations Association, all formed task forces and prepared publications. Measurement and evaluation had at last arrived as a central professional issue. Document analysis will be the main research method to prepare the timeline of the development of public relations measurement evaluation through. This paper will also explore the theoretical and professional themes that have characterised the development of theory and methodology in this important public relations practice

Phenomenal concepts: Neither circular nor opaque

In this paper, I focus on an influential account of phenomenal concepts, the recognitional account, and defend it from some recent challenges. According to this account, phenomenal concepts are recognitional concepts that we use when we recognize experiences as 'another one of those.' Michael Tye has argued that this account is viciously circular because the relevant recognitional abilities involve descriptions of the form 'another experience of the same type,' which is also a phenomenal concept. Tye argues that we avoid the circularity worry if we explain the reference-fixing of phenomenal concepts in terms of dispositions to re-identify tokens of the same type without appealing to any further phenomenal concepts. However, he argues, this account is incompatible with the intuitive claim that phenomenal concepts seem to involve rich modes of presentation of their referents. Philip Goff and others have similarly argued that a recognitional account of phenomenal concepts would make phenomenal concepts opaque, that is, unable to reveal anything about their referents, which seems problematic. In this paper, I present a new version of the recognitional account that avoids the circularity worry without entailing that phenomenal concepts are opaque